Thursday City News

Who will love me?

2012-01-23T14:13:00.000-05:00

I have a new illustration coming up in the New Yorker. This will be my second ﬁction piece and full page illustration. It is scheduled to appear in the 31Jan12 issue. That comes out tomorrow.

The title of the story is “Someone” written by Alice McDermott. The story is one of jilted love set in 1930s Brooklyn, back when it was truly the world’s melting pot, and not the new Manhattan.

Anyway, check it out.

Winter Greetings

2011-12-22T17:34:00.000-05:00

Who knew that last year was to be our last winter in New York? We may have experienced our last Christmas in a winter wonderland. So this year, while we are cozy and warm in our new home in Atlanta, we greet you from a fantasy landscape covered in imaginary snow. Have a great holiday season!!!

Laura

2011-12-13T18:08:00.000-05:00

Got a new illustration coming up in the New Yorker. Cover date will be 02Jan12. This one is for another noir film. “Laura” by Otto Preminger. Apparently I am becoming the noir illustrator over at the NYer.

I have not posted any of my personal work lately, but I plan to rectify that soon. I have several other jobs in the pipeline, but I have a lot of new pages of comics I have not posted or mentioned.

From the end of August to the beginning of November I logged around 40,000 miles of travel. From the mountains in North Carolina, to the river banks of St. Louis, to drought stricken Austin, to the inland shores of Chicago, to the future city of Tokyo, to the magical mystical forests of Oregon. Whew. It was exhausting. And now I am looking forward to a winter holed up and working on some magickal concoctions.

Until next time, enjoy the illustration.

Faust

2011-11-02T15:26:00.001-04:00

The Met is putting on a new production of Faust replete with bespoke suits and atomic bombs. A Faust for the World War eras.

I was in Tokyo last week, but how could I turn down Mr Awan’s offer to do an illustration for this?
I mean, it is Faust.

So, below is what I came up with and it should be in the 14Nov11 issue of the New Yorker.

Black Narcissus

2011-10-21T19:18:00.000-04:00

Okay, a new piece coming up in the Halloween edition of the New Yorker. Cover date should be 31Oct11.

This one is for the movie “Black Narcissus.” I have never seen the movie. I didn’t have time to see the movie before the illustration deadline. So, I went solely by the source images Mr Awan sent me.

I hope the movie is as good as the illustration I came up with. Know what I mean?

Southern Comfort

2011-10-21T01:00:00.000-04:00

I just whipped up this poster in a two night frenzy.

My good friend Takuya runs a design business in Tokyo. He was hired by Southern Comfort (yes, the liquor company) to do some design work. Part of his job was promotional work for a party they are sponsoring to kick off Design Week in Tokyo, which is 01Nov-06Nov11. Takuya hired me to do the postcard and poster for the party in exchange for a future trip to Japan. So…

Here is the poster:

The postcard is basically the bottom half of the poster, but in black and white:

Festivals Galore

2011-10-13T13:27:00.001-04:00

In conjunction with AthensPopFest the ﬁne boys of Fluke have organized an arts and comics ﬂea market of sorts for this Saturday, 15Oct11. If anyone is in Athens this weekend or inclined to come to Athens you can ﬁnd me and my comics at OctöberFLUKE. It will be held at the Classic Center between 10am-6pm. Man or Astroman and the Dead Milkmen will be playing the 40Watt that night and Masters of the Hemisphere and Olivia Tremor Control will play Friday. So, if you are looking to make a weekend of it in Athens without the fall football crowds this would be the weekend to do it. I hope to see you there!

In other festival news my good friend Gabriella Gomez-Mont recently directed a documentary ﬁlm entitled “El Hombre Que Vivió en un Zapato” or “The Man Who Lived in a Shoe.” The ﬁlm evocatively dives into the abysses of a true eccentric’s life in Mexico. By turns banal and fantastic it is well worth a viewing by any of you fascinated by the extremes of the human condition. Well, the ﬁlm got accepted into an international ﬁlm festival in Mexico, I am not even sure which one, and Gabriella asked me to do the poster for it. So, below, you will ﬁnd my very ﬁrst ﬁlm poster!

The end of an era

2011-09-14T15:41:00.000-04:00

As you will no doubt recall on 18Oct08 I blogged a post, or perhaps plugged a boast or flogged a roast or snogged a host or hugged a ghost or… Wait a minute…

Where was I?

Oh. Yeah. So, in 2008 I mentioned a piece I did on the landmark Monster Island building, an arts and music space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Well, Monster Island is about to be submerged in a tsunami of industrial “progress.” Its demise has been written up in the New York Times, Billboard, and several other places on the world wide Indra’s net. Or is it the veil of Maya? Either way this news seems very ﬁtting for me personally.

Monster Island started seven years ago, which is around the time I moved to Brooklyn, and is now closing down around the time I moved away. This symmetry is just something I ﬁnd personally resonant. Of course the largest part of the personal connection is the fact that I put a mural on its walls three years ago and it has remained there since. Another factor is that Kayrock printed my wedding invitations in that building as well.

Monster Island was a visual delight in Williamsburg for as long as I was there. It is sad to see it go, but I am glad I won’t see it go. Just another casualty in the war of attrition that is the Eternally Grinding Wheel of Progress. In restaurants we have sliders and poppers to attest to the fact that progress seems to have a goal of frictionless consumption, but what happens when there is nothing left for the Wheel to grind and nothing left for the gullet to consume? I suppose the Beast will then have to consume itself. I think it has already started.

Check out the links above and you can see my piece on the walls as the building enjoyed its last hurrah. Below are some images from my post of three years ago.

Ali inspires little green men from Asia

2011-09-14T01:22:00.000-04:00

Got a new illustration coming out in next week’s New Yorker (26Sep11 issue).

This saxophonist Fred Ho paints himself green and will play a concert inspired by and in homage to Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali, saxophones, and green body paint with matching green trainglehawk hair style sounds like a winning evening to me.

Check it out:

Where the Sidewalk Ends

2011-08-23T14:44:00.000-04:00

I will have a piece in the 05Sep11 issue of the New Yorker. I suppose someone (Film Forum, Anthology Archives, Lincoln Center?) is showing the ﬁlm “Where the Sidewalk Ends”? I don’t know. It was not explained to me what this was for. I was simply asked to illustrate a piece regarding the noir ﬁlm “Where the Sidewalk Ends.” It is quite different than the Shel Silverstein book of the same name, and came before it.

The ﬁlm was directed by Otto Preminger who also did the classic junkie ﬁlm “The Man with the Golden Arm” starring Frank Sinatra. And, for all you graphic design historians, featuring titles designed by the great Saul Bass.

I had never seen the ﬁlm before so I watched it this weekend. The scene I came up with does not actually occur in the movie, but I wanted something that hinted at some drama and had a relatively dynamic composition without slavishly copying an actual scene. Also I was asked to include the two main characters if possible.

If you have never seen the film I recommend it as a well crafted noir. But the ending is a bit too contrived and unconvincing. The actions of the main character implied a resolution that was more fatalistic than the mildly syrupy redemption he was granted. Sure, he didn’t mean to be bad, but he was a brute to the core and should have met a brutish fate.

The Hooded Utilitarian Poll

2011-08-19T15:02:00.000-04:00

Comics blog the Hooded Utilitarian just conducted a best comics poll recently. I took part with my top ten list, which you can see here. And you can see the overall poll results here.

Thanks to Mr. Robert Stanley Martin for inviting me to participate and the massive amount of work he had to do to consolidate, calculate, organize, and display the results.

I have been really surprised at how many great looking comics I have never heard of have been turned up by reading the other participants’ top tens. I think this was a really worthwhile project.Go check it out!

Nearing the end of “Severed Limbs”

2011-08-11T20:30:00.002-04:00

Well, it suddenly occurred to me. I am near the end of my second book, “Severed Limbs”. The ﬁrst draft at least. I have been working on it, more and less, for the past three years already. There have been many other, less ambitious, projects in between, but I started it before I had quite ﬁnished “The Moth or the Flame”. So, to be this close is quite exciting for me.

I have one more scene to complete on the ﬁrst draft. And then, by my calculations, a few months of revisions. Hopefully the book will be complete and looking for publication by early next year. But, unless something catastrophic occurs, it deﬁnitely will be ready by next Spring.

Here is the ﬁnal page of the next to ﬁnal scene. Some of Fred’s encounters are reverberating through his mind, while he is also worried he may have made a drastic mistake in his course of action.

(This page has already been slightly revised. I scanned in an earlier version just to get a sense of what it would look like fully inked and that is what you are seeing.)

Nate McClusky, child soldier

2011-07-29T17:51:00.002-04:00

Poor Nate.
Ever since he was kidnapped by the rebels he has been subjected to unimaginable atrocities. In the quest to create super soldiers to combat the UCE the children are pumped full of pharmacological super-cocktails, trained relentlessly in guerilla tactics and combat, flooded with propaganda, etc.
At the age of 9 he is already an expert marksmen and working as a sniper in some of the heaviest battlefields in the system. He is also already jaded beyond belief.
Thousand yard stare? Pfft, Nate has a thousand mile stare.
He sees right through you.
And everyone behind you.
Say a prayer for Nate McClusky.

How does Roderick Doughnuts say it?

2011-06-30T18:43:00.003-04:00

In the course of installing the show I have coming up (Return of the Prodigal, see below) there was a space left open right next to the door. So, I thought it would be nice to have something graphic to welcome people in and also to bid them adieu. Well, aloha does both of those things and Roderick says it with gusto! So, I whipped this up last night and will print it up tomorrow.

Roderick Doughnuts is one bad dude. And this is how he says it.

Return of the Prodigal

2011-06-22T02:31:00.000-04:00

I have a show going up soon at the historic Barnesville Depot.
It will be open from July 1-August 20.
The opening reception is July 8, 6-8pm.
Everyone is invited!

Below is the postcard for the show:

The Little Humpbacked Horse

2011-05-31T13:34:00.000-04:00

The June 13&20th double issue of the New Yorker will contain an illustration by yours truly. The Mariinsky Ballet is putting on “The Little Humpbacked Horse” at Lincoln Center. It looks to be quite a treat. I wish I could go see it.

Mother’s Day

2011-05-08T23:18:00.001-04:00

This year’s Mother’s Day card.

All tomorrow’s after-parties

2011-05-06T00:17:00.000-04:00

After the party the Goddess Honeysuckle just wants to gather her belongings and head home.

Where’s the nearest nail salon?

2011-04-28T23:11:00.000-04:00

Is there a place in this solar system for a well groomed cosmonaut?

Love is in the air

2011-04-27T19:07:00.000-04:00

Need I say more?

The Other Place

2011-04-18T23:56:00.000-04:00

Roseanne’s sister in Roseanne Barr’s show “Roseanne” is starring in a play called “The Other Place” in New York City. It/she will be reviewed in the 02May11 issue.

I love how the premise of the review establishes in the first line that there are a much broader array of qualities in an actor than “sexy” or “rugged” and then in the next to last line she is (oh, look at the range!) both sexy AND authoritative. Wow, there really are so many other possibilities for an actor.

Here is the illustration:

Flotsam & Jetsam: Deep Space Redux

2011-04-01T00:53:00.000-04:00

Here is a page I just remodeled for the next Static Fish. I drew the image last year for a poster advertising a gallery show in Red Hook. But I had always intended to turn it into a page of comics. Here, finally, is the end result.

I am really feeling good about the headline. It took me almost as long as the rest of the page, but it was worth it.

Headline detail:

Harmonization

2011-03-30T01:34:00.002-04:00

Sketch of the day:

Un Regard Moderne and Me

2011-03-17T20:24:00.000-04:00

I was in Paris last week for a Moebius exhibition at the Fondation Cartier, which, by the way, was amazing and inspiring. I will post more on that at a later date.

But my second order of business was visiting one of the world’s most stupefying book stores. Un Regard Moderne is stacked toe to top with fantastic and stimulating books, books, and more books. If you are a bibliophile, as I most certainly am, or an aesthete, also guilty, you will love it.

I went twice and on the second visit Mr. Noël bought the books I had hauled over from Cabbagetown. If you are ever in Paris and fit one of the two aforementioned categories you must visit.

The facade on Rue Git-le-coeur.

Beautifulness.

Mr. Noël holding up some newly acquired awesomeness!

The Moth or the Flame and Static Fish cozying up to a stack of paper delight.

Moon Blood

2011-03-09T02:07:00.001-05:00

Feel the blood coursing through thy veins.
How it pulses.
Like the ocean’s tides.
Does this blood also rise or fall,
according to the Moon’s feminine caprice?

Five Divas

2011-03-09T02:04:00.003-05:00

This illustration will be in next week’s New Yorker. Film Forum is running a ﬁlm series of ﬁve Japanese divas throughout the month and this will accompany the write-up.

This is my ﬁrst illustration since moving to Atlanta, so no more Film Forum for me. The move is also responsible for the lack of posting for almost a month now. We still don’t even have internet, don’t ask. So far we have been too busy unpacking and getting situated to get much else done. A very little exploring. A bit of sketching here and there. And trying to stay honed. Moving is arduous.

Another severed peek

2011-02-09T01:28:00.001-05:00

Fred keeps getting nearer and nearer his goal, but somehow farther away.

Every step seems to take him into another distracting and divergent realm he had no intention of entering.

Will he ever catch up to Le Gooch?

Well, he has to survive this ﬁrst.

Awkward silence and still life with orange

2011-01-26T23:59:00.000-05:00

I did my ﬁrst illustration for a ﬁction piece in the New Yorker this week. It accompanies a story by Tessa Hadley. The piece will appear in the 07Feb11 edition.

Check it out.

Olympian Spreads pt 2

2011-01-25T16:40:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple more spreads from “the Olympians.”

Hermes is one of my favorites. If you click to view larger you should be able to read it. This is the story in which Hermes kills the hundred-eyed giant Argus. I love the way Hermes is sidling up all buddy buddy to Argus in the image. But later…

Lop.

And Poseidon? Well Poseidon is just the man. Check out his watery palace!

Olympian Spreads pt 1

2011-01-19T00:45:00.003-05:00

Here are a couple of spreads from the Olympians. More to come.

The Olympians: Gods of the Greeks

2011-01-12T20:00:00.000-05:00

Almost two years ago Kristin asked me if I would draw something about the Olympian gods for her periodical Uncle Envelope. I have worked on it off and on since then, but the last two months saw me working vigorously to get it done. I was to put the coup de grace on the periodical’s two year run. Uncle Envelope has decided to take a much needed vacation and the Olympians will be the ﬁnal mailing.

Kristin, Mary and I worked this weekend putting together the ﬁnal books and stuffing envelopes. The books were mailed out on Saturday.

I am really happy with my ﬁnal design. I plan to seek ﬁnancial backing to publish a larger run on an offset press. Until then, enjoy some images. I also plan to post some larger images of a few of my favorite spreads soon.

Last blizzard of 2010

2011-01-11T02:12:00.002-05:00

I keep forgetting to post this.

We Rays travelled down to the Dirty South for Christmas this year. The ﬁrst time back home since 07.

Well, we had a flight for Sunday the 26th to return to Brooklyn.
But then there came a blizzard.
We were “stranded” in Georgia until Wednesday.

When we ﬁnally returned home this is what our car looked like.

There was even a raggedy Christmas tree buried underneath it!

The importance of being woman

2011-01-05T15:35:00.000-05:00

Below is an illustration for next week’s New Yorker 17Jan11. The subject is Brian Bedford, who’s directing and starring as Lady Bracknell in “The Importance of Being Earnest” at the American Airlines Theatre.

Dionysus

2010-12-30T02:07:00.000-05:00

The great reveler.

This is an image from a book about the Olympian gods I am working on. It is very close to being complete. I will post more when they are scanned in.

For now, enjoy the great reveler.

Hold onto your seats!

2010-12-10T17:31:00.002-05:00

The staff and I at “Static Fish” just received images from printer-liaison extraordinaire Michael Quinn (thanks Mike) of the new issue. And whoooowheee it looks gooooodddd. The whole shipment is on its way to Brooklyn and they should be available next week.

So, feast your eyes on photos for now and get yourself a copy of this before they are all gone and you are sad.

Black Diamond Express to hell

2010-11-29T20:02:00.000-05:00

Below is a new illustration for this week’s New Yorker. The newsstand version is the 06Dec10 issue. You can check it out here as well.

Talent Show

2010-11-19T02:44:00.000-05:00

A piece for this week’s New Yorker 22Nov10.

For the Talent Show at PS1, on view from 12Dec10–04Apr11.

Fred gets a painful lift

2010-10-17T18:49:00.001-04:00

This page is from my upcoming Severed Limbs. This is a scene near the last fourth of the book.

Fred gets an airlift in his hunt for Le Gooch as Potemkin observes from afar.

Jazzy fountain of searing jazziness

2010-10-14T01:56:00.000-04:00

I have a new illustration in the current New Yorker (18Oct10). The piece is for a couple of jazz musicians called Apex. This is my ﬁrst quarter page drawing for the New Yorker, so that is exciting.

Inhalations

2010-09-30T23:56:00.001-04:00

Here is the latest installment of the Sunrays Brothers’ quest.

I am not completely satisfied with this one. It has an epic quality I was going for, but I think it tries to do a bit too much, resulting in something irresolute.

It looks good though, and there are some personal formal innovations I will redeploy in the future.

AUX Volume 2: CD Packaging

2010-09-23T15:34:00.001-04:00

If you will recall I designed a poster and promotional material for the AUX Festival in Athens, Ga. in the Spring. Well, in conjunction with the festival the AUX people produced a CD, which I designed. On it you will ﬁnd the first new track from legendary Athens band Olivia Tremor Control in ten years. You will also find a collection of strange, ethereal, ambient, dreamy, surreal, and delightful music all over, under, and inside this disc.

Each package was lovingly screen printed by David Savino. It was then folded and die-cut by Mark Callahan and the AUX crew.

The limited edition CD will be available on October 19th. You can get your pre-order on here, and also find a track list. The CD is already being hyped by Pitchfork and others so snap it up if you like stuff that is not the same old stuff.

New Illustration in the New Yorker

2010-09-16T13:24:00.000-04:00

I illustrated an article about a band with a really lame name here:

F**ked Up, hardcore punk from Toronto, review: newyorker.com

To see it in full you will either need to purchase the 13Sep10 New Yorker or have an online subscription. But you can see a tiny little reproduction of a tiny illustration at the link above.

Welcome to Thursday City: Show opening

2010-09-04T09:10:00.001-04:00

I am working with the ﬁne folks at Contaminate NYC again to coordinate a show at a slick little hair salon in the West Village. Thanks to Virginia for curating and for writing such a thoughtful press release. Information below:

Curated by Virginia Villari

@CONTESTA ROCKHAIR

535 Hudson St., corner Charles St. (West Village), NY, NY 10014

Sept. 15th – Oct. 13th, 2010

OPENING RECEPTION: September 15th, from 6 to 9 PM

Welcome to Thursday City is the solo show dedicated to comic book artist and graphic designer Joshua Ray Stephens. The exhibition is a presentation of Joshua’s imaginary world: the city of Thursday City and its habitants. On display a series of drawings, black ink on paper, which unfold these personages to the viewer, who is thrown into an enigmatic universe, populated by heroic, mystical figures. Men, women, soldiers and philosophers, often hybrid creatures, half man half animal, move within surreal scenarios. In the end, they are modern characters: contradictory, ironic, provocative, always busy talking, speculating, wondering, fighting or doing some mysterious activities.

“I hail from the Deep South where people have the time to tell each other long stories.” Narrative is a crucial aspect of Joshua’s work. Whether within one picture or deployed through several, a meaning always informs his images. This visual writer has always been attracted by heroic narratives as well as by comedy. Comics is the visual medium that perfectly combines the two, as it can simultaneously be epic and silly, fantastic and absurd. Joshua’s influences range from Greek mythology to Japanese mangas, from Dostojevski to Moebius. His aesthetic is gothic and industrial, but always silly and humorous. Welcome to Thursday City shows us the heroism of the ordinary that we all experience every day, and invites us to not take ourselves too seriously.

Joshua Ray Stephens is a designer by training, a cartoonist by vocation, an educator by edict, an artist by accident, and a philosopher by autodidaction. He was born and raised in Georgia. He earned a BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Georgia. After undergrad he worked and studied at Fabrica, Benetton’s internationally acclaimed communications research center in Treviso, Italy. He then went to Cranbrook Academy of Art to earn his Master’s degree in 2D Design. He has been initiated into the arcane mysteries through spiritual powers beyond verbal comprehension.
www.thursdaycity.com

ContestaRockHair® is a brand created in 1996 by a group of hairstylists who shared the passion for fashion. Contesta is characterized by a rock soul that links music and art with the creation of hair styles, fostering innovation and experimentation. Today Contesta Rockhair counts 11 salons in Rome, Florence, New York, Miami and Shangai.

the Blighty

2010-08-27T01:41:00.002-04:00

I was in Londontown last week with Mary the Queen of Sottsass. Much of the trip was top secret, but some I can share.

You should visit Nobrow, a shop in Shoreditch, only a few mere blocks from the grave of William Blake in Bunhill Fields. The shop is a beautifully curated little gallery slash comics slash illustration space. Definitely worth a look. It was only a block or so from our hotel, but we found it at a comics fair in a park several miles west. Magical.

Below you will also find a sketch I made during dinner the last night there.

Kathakali

2010-08-11T03:01:00.000-04:00

If you like hindu mythology and/or violence and/or dance and you live in New York go check out the kathakali performance at New York’s Downtown Dance Festival.

The current issue of the New Yorker (Aug 16-23) has an illustration by yours truly in their write up of the kathakali dance.

Pick yourself up a copy or go look at it online here.

The contrarietal stars are uprising tonight

2010-08-09T03:32:00.000-04:00

As I posted the other week I went to Cooperstown on the 25th of July to install two shows at the Smithy Gallery. One of my own work and one a group show I curated.

It was a week full of hard work and little sleep, but it came off quite nicely I believe. There were a ton of people at the opening and so far I have heard a lot of positive comments.

Here are some pics of the two shows.
Uprising:

Contrariety:

Queens Ledger/Brooklyn Star

2010-08-05T02:02:00.001-04:00

The Queens Ledger/Brooklyn Star newspapers printed a write up of me and “the Moth or the Flame” last week. I garnered the front page of the Entertainment section. Below are some pics. And you can go check it out online here.

Uprising and Contrariety

2010-07-23T01:50:00.004-04:00

I have a solo show opening next Thursday at the Smithy gallery in Cooperstown, NY. Home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Simultaneously there will be a group show I am curating.

There will be a lot of really good work on display. If you are in the area between July 29th and August 26th check it out!

Below is the postcard for the shows and also a list of the participating artists in the group show.

Here are the artists in the show, a really great list of eclectic creators:
Jordan Awan
Andrew Coates
Alison Corrie
Arden de Brun
Elliott Earls
Morgan Elliott-Awan
Ed Fella
Ryan Hobbs
Alyssa Kosmer
Kristin Lindner
Ali Madad
L Nichols
Luke Rotzler
Benjamin Santiago
Morgan Sheasby
R Sikoryak
Kenneth Smith
Patrick Smith
Katelyn Snyder
Seth Nicholas Stephens
Benjamin Teague
Chad Verrill
Daniel Wagner

More MonstrAUXity

2010-07-19T01:52:00.001-04:00

Here is the packaging design for the AUX CD vol 2. If you will recall I designed the posters for the AUX Festival, an experimental arts and music festival held in Athens Ga., in April.

Well the AUX people also produce a CD anthology in conjunction with the festival. The design is below.

The first you see as it is unfolded with the CD in place. The second is after the CD is lifted.

Divinity at work

2010-07-12T01:44:00.001-04:00

The Lord(s) work in mysterious ways.

Which is no excuse to blame the Lord(s).

How can we raise ourselves up to the life of Spirit?

Not claiming to be God,
but neither excusing ourselves as “only human.”
By which we mean “I give up.”

The responsibility is, rather, to attend to Divinity.
To listen, and integrate.

The Lord(s) work in mysterious ways.

Playing house, or what we’ve been doing

2010-07-09T01:35:00.001-04:00

This is what Brother Cucumber and I have been doing with Summer.

Playing house.

Now, the Bird has a Home Office.

And our guests have a bedroom.

A Guest Bedroom.

Of sorts.

Some kind of heaven to me

2010-06-17T02:09:00.000-04:00

“A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul.”—Franz Kafka

“…books, the acute and excruciating acts of concentration by which humans aspire to self-transcendence, to capture forms of understanding more profound and rational and cosmic than they themselves are by nature capable of directly being…”—Kenneth Smith

Amen.

Smoke Signal 05

2010-06-15T02:36:00.000-04:00

The new Smoke Signal has arrived.

Snatch one up.

Populated Desert Island

2010-06-11T19:50:00.004-04:00

The release party for Static Fish has now come and gone.
Thanks to all who made it out.
To all who didn’t, you missed free beer and a store full of great books, people,
and gag toys.

Now, we have to get back to work on the next Static Fish and all the other things we all do.

Not to mention World Cup action has ﬁnally begun. Hurray!

Here are some pics from the show:

Kris looks on. The books vibrate with power. People commune. And, finally, Anthony makes his first grab with a set of chopsticks! Thumbs up Anthony.

Hunter, Anthony, and Kristin look on, skeptically intrigued, as Ben, blissfully ignorant, eats his cake donut while reading a book.

Reconnoiter for the ﬁrst time

2010-06-08T02:43:00.000-04:00

Last week I drove all alone Upstate.
What a beautiful and amazing place New York is.
Once outside the city that is.
Of course even Manhattan used to be beautiful.
If only the Red Indians had been a bit more cynical,
perhaps this natural wonder would have been allowed to remain.
I cannot help but think of the Red Indian.
He knew the natural paths and rhythms of this land.
The White Man came and destroyed all of that.
And thank the Great Spirit!
For where would we be without our highways, and interstates?
Where would we be without our Wal-Marts, and Targets, and Home Depots?

Here are some pics of places I swam at. And places I stopped at.
And 7444 Gallery where I installed a show.

Do oil slicked ﬁsh dream of Static Fish?

2010-06-02T11:59:00.004-04:00

The world may never know.

We are having a release party for the new full-color Static Fish at Desert Island on Tuesday 08June10.
Come out. Meet the artists. Have a beer. Should be fun.

Choice Splints

2010-05-30T02:57:00.000-04:00

A journey into the interior.
Upstate.
A scouting mission in Cooperstown.
An installation mission in Saranac Lake.
Boom.
Choice Splints: Muck, mire, and sublimated desire.
Opens Thursday.

Inﬁnitization

2010-05-26T02:38:00.003-04:00

There are magical and mysterious wonders all around us.
We don’t really need to visit some exotic place to visit some exotic place.
And if we need to visit some exotic place to feel alive,
we are likely already dead.
Or deadened.
Which means the sought for feeling will not be attendant.
Though what an awe ﬁlled wonder to experience unknown environs.
Desert islands.
Dark jungles full of singing creatures and hidden killers.
Hello?
Do you know what sacred means?

Here is my newest submission to Smoke Signal.
I don’t yet know if the Comicsarchangel Gabriel will use it.
But hopefully.

Made in Red Hook

2010-05-12T18:23:00.001-04:00

I just ﬁnished a poster for a group show I am involved in, which opens the 22nd. The name of the show is Made in Red Hook. As the title would imply the show is comprised of artists who live and/or work in Red Hook, a lovely and surreal neighborhood. I don’t know all of the artists involved, but based on the ones I do know it will be quite an eclectic mix of perspectives and styles.

The show will open on Saturday 22May10 at the Lucky Gallery, 176 Richards St. The opening will endure from 7-10pm, and the show will be up until 13Jun10.

Unfortunately, I will not be in attendance at the opening. I will be on my way back from a dark and mysterious adventure in the wilds of Mexico. If you can make it out have a drink for me!

Dark Meat: the Aftermath

2010-05-05T17:21:00.006-04:00

The opening for my show Dark Meat at O’Barone was last night. It was quite enjoyable, to me at least, and below are some images from the event.

I am also embedding an interview the Dreamy Dreamer Alessandro Spreafico of Contaminate NYC conducted with me preceding the show.

Photos courtesy of the sharp eyed Melanie McLean. Thanks Melanie.

Man-about-town Mr Jackson was ready to greet the visitors, play, and/or explain any of the works. Or bounce people, if need be.

Rob and Carol used to live next door to each other in Chicago and met here for the ﬁrst time since! So great.

Andrew studies and evaluates.

Thank you so much to all of you that were able to make it out!

Sickness becomes art

2010-04-29T18:05:00.006-04:00

How does sickness turn into art shows? A perennial question ever since Nietzsche.

Well, in this case, the owner (we’ll call him Alfredo) of O’Barone, a North Italian style restaurant in Red Hook, discovered himself to have a deadly sickness, which required his immediate return to Italy for treatment. The good people at Contaminate NYC, who are friends with Alfredo, stepped in to manage the restaurant in his absence. They, being the unrepentant schemers they are, got to scheming. Let’s contaminate Red Hook they thought. And so they contacted the Mysterious Hanna Mandelbaum about helping out with a series of shows at O’Barone. The Mysterious Hanna contacted me.

Et voila!

On Tuesday 04May10, my show Dark Meat will open at O’Barone.

Who knew an art show at a local restaurant would have such a convoluted back story?

If you are in the area come check it out. The work will be on display until 18May10.

The man o’ might

2010-04-28T03:43:00.000-04:00

Tha mon o’ micht, he rade o’ nicht
Wi’ neider swerd ne ferd ne licht.
He socht the Mare, he fond tha mare,
He bond tha Mare wi’ her ain hare,
Ond gared her swar by midder-micht
She wolde nae mair rid o’ nicht
Whar aince he rade, thot mon o’ micht.

Charm Against the Night Mare, 14th century North Country poem.

A 21st century sketch:

Iceland Saga pt.2: Green Glacier Stomp

2010-04-20T01:03:00.005-04:00

Here is one of the early videos from super group Green Glacier. The group formed under mysterious and mythic circumstances, allegedly while on a road trip in Iceland. Their leaving is even said to have caused a volcanic eruption, which triggered another volcanic eruption, which shut down Europe’s air travel for over a week! So, of course, you need to know about this super group.

Here is their video Green Glacier Stomp, set to Led Zeppelin. The setting is the largest glacier in Europe the famed and dreaded Vatnajökull. There are some supplementary photos of life on the glacier below.

Of course it is green just below the ice. It is said that the green and the white are in an eternal struggle for supremacy. If one wins the world ends.

This is where we went snowmobiling. On the glacier. This may be where the super group Green Glacier formed. We are still trying to learn of their origins, ever veiled in mystery and controversy.

It may be that Thor and the Aesir battled the Frost Giants here. It just may be.

Static Fish: The MoCCA Experience

2010-04-14T02:59:00.000-04:00

The ﬁrst box of Static Fish arrived in time for the MoCCA Festival this weekend. The festival went really well. Unfortunately I could only make it for the second day, but from what I saw people seemed really keen on the book. We sold a little over a dozen copies, which for a $15 book, at a show where people are mainly shelling out only $2-5 bucks a pop, is quite good.

It was already picked as one of the best books of the festival by the NY Daily news. Check it out.

Here are some pics of the physical item.

The end papers were drawn beautifully by Hunter Heckroth.

One ﬁsh was drawn by each contributor to go with their introductory page. And here you can see them all swimming together in harmony. Awwwwwww…

AUX Postcard

2010-04-12T17:39:00.002-04:00

Well the AUX festival was this weekend, and by all accounts it went well.

I have been informed that my posters have received “the highest honor” by being stolen “left and right”! So, that gives the old ego a massage. Though, in general, I am working to override and undermine my ego. So perhaps the massage is not helpful?

Below you will ﬁnd the postcard I also designed for the festival. I forgot to post it when I completed it.

As of now, I will also be designing the packaging (in collaboration with the event coordinator Mark Callahan) for the CD you see advertised above in the postcard. I will post images when it is done.

The MonstrAUXity has arrived! First wave.

2010-04-02T03:04:00.000-04:00

You may (or may not) remember. I recently designed a poster for the AUX Experimental Arts Festival in Athens GA. Well, we have just received images of the posters hanging all over the place, thanks to festival coordinator and Southern gentleman-in-training Mark Callahan.

Take a gander:

Wuxtry and just above it, off screen, Bizarro Wuxtry. One of my favorite corners on the planet.

Thanks to Hannah Batsel for the screen printing.

Iceland Sagas pt.1

2010-03-29T03:57:00.000-04:00

Why is the sea salty?

Why are rocks so hard?

But why are some rocks soft?

Craters form like zits.
The earth’s epidermis begins to bubble with liquids.
The liquids seep out.
They leave behind a hole,
to mark their passing.

Or sometimes something just smashes into the outside.

Static Fish

2010-03-18T17:09:00.001-04:00

With deadlines and a journey to Iceland looming it required several near sleepless nights to get it done. The next issue of Static Fish is going to be beautiful, if all goes well at the printer. Full color, hardback bound, hand lettered divider pages, and a dreamy collection of stories all go in to making what should be something special.

Here you see the cover illustrated by Kris Mukai, lettered and designed by me. The black lines indicate the edges of the spine.

Below is the intro page with text from C.G. Jung and the outro page with text from Kafka.

Iceland

2010-03-12T03:28:00.000-05:00

I am in Iceland right now. It is not icy in Reykjavik, but it is cold and moist.
On our way to glaciers and horses and snowmobiles and volcanoes.

My internet access is such that Thursday City and I are not on good terms at the moment,
so no images right now.

Coming soon.

Until then,
we search for the Northern Lights tonight.
We drink Viking beer with vikings.
We sit in hot tubs on horses with pints of Ale.
We spend too much money on fancy things.
We eat good bread.
We talk politics.
We do our part to inject Iceland’s economy with Liquidity.
We laugh at the fact that the Prime Minister of Iceland
works in a building that looks like a small hunting lodge.
We get not enough sleep.

MonstrAUXity

2010-03-03T03:36:00.001-05:00

This is a poster I have been working on for the AUX festival in Athens, Ga. It is an alternative music, ﬁlm/video, and arts fest. This will be the fourth one, hence the 4 on the billboard. The poster is not exactly complete as there will need to be additional info added at the bottom, which I will hand letter. I am also working on some periphery material for the festival. A potential postcard, banner, newspaper ad, etc.

I don’t even know for sure that any of it will be used, but this is the most interesting thing I have done this week, so I am posting it.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you… the MonstrAUXity!

Reflections

2010-02-25T02:34:00.001-05:00

What if the birth of our consciousness is the death of our soul?

What does it mean to be human, if being human is inhumane?

Static Fish is an anthology produced periodically by the energetic, ambitious, and aspiring cartoonists at Pratt. The upcoming issue is going to be full color. The editor-in-chief is the charming Jane Wu, who happens to be taking my Sequential Art course this semester. I am helping them produce this issue, and I hope to continue helping out in an advisory role.

Here then is my submission for Static Fish Spring 2010, in full color!

Reflections, starring the indomitable Brothers Sunrays:

Blizzard

2010-02-17T00:34:00.003-05:00

Last Wednesday we had a blizzard in New York City. I took some photos of my friends Thorsten and Nikolas Nicodemus Sunrays playing on my roof. It snowed for around twenty four hours non-stop. These photos were about twelve hours into it. Enjoy.

This should be a scrolling image. If you open it in a new tab, and it is too small, roll your mouse over the image and click again.

It should be large enough to read the text, but I have noticed in Safari it opens up fitted to the screen size.

Red Riding

2010-02-09T02:21:00.000-05:00

Friend of Thursday City, Kosta Stratigos, and I recently went to see a marathon screening of the Red Riding trilogy. If you haven’t heard of it, it is a BBC Channel 4 production that is being pushed onto the big screen in America by the good people at IFC. The individual ﬁlms are entitled 1974, 1980, and 1983. They are directed by three different directors and, inexplicably, in three different formats. The screenplays were all written by the same man, Tony Grisoni.

The ﬁlms were ﬁlled with bleak atmospheres, truly terrifying characters, violence, intrigue, and more. In typical British fashion they are unafraid to cast actors who actually ﬁt the part, rather than a collection of beautiful people. The characters are ugly and scary and tough and grim. And they match their landscape. There were easily three of the most convincingly terrifying villains you will ever see on the liquid landscape of moving images. And they were terrifying, because they seemed like real men. Men who would stop at nothing to have their way. Men who looked and sounded like they had been birthed of coal mines and rock quarries not women. When they say: “To the North where we do what we want.” you believe them and you don’t want to be anywhere near the North, where they are doing what they want, because what they want may destroy you.

Having watched all three of them back to back I ﬁnd it difficult to separate them from one another entirely. They are all set in Yorkshire, and have recurring characters throughout, though in each ﬁlm different characters are in the lead. The background for the ﬁlms are a series of kidnappings and murders that terrorized and horriﬁed Yorkshire during this time period. Tentatively the attempt to solve these murders by several different people is what the ﬁlms are about. But in actuality they are about the devastating impact that ruthless and unscrupulous men can have on every aspect of life in a community and society. The ﬁlms explore the way that ruthlessness and drive for power creates a seemingly inescapably self-reinforcing matrix, for both the perpetrators of power and its victims. Most people are likely to watch these ﬁlms and see them as typical conspiracy theory paranoia or gratuitously violent. And the ﬁlms don’t do much, explicitly, to sidestep those interpretations, but in truth the actions that these men and women choose are woven together in an inevitable and inextricable mesh. The mesh is very messy and there are many loose threads, but this only sufﬁces to make the ﬁlms more life like. Life never really resolves itself in the neat ways that the entertainment industry would have us believe.

As ruthless as the characters are in their drive for power, the ﬁlms are just as ruthless in exposing the workings of human character. Over and over we see the way that man’s actions doom or fate him to certain other actions, and how those actions reverberate throughout the lives of communities. We see the way that, whether explicitly or not, we are all caught up in a conspiracy. In truth it is the tacit conspiracies that are the most binding. Just as the Fenris wolf was ﬁnally bound by the most ephemeral of bonds, the Yorkshire of these ﬁlms is bound by invisible and unbreakable ties. As communities turn a blind eye to domestic abuse, police brutality, corporate plunder, vice, etc. they doom themselves to being preyed upon, abused, brutalized, plundered, and victimized. One of the few redeeming characters in the trilogy, journalist Barry Gannon, says at one point something to the effect of: “The devil wins when good men do nought.” This is a paraphrase of Edmund Burke’s aphorism: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” For me this scene and this line was the moral axis that the entire ﬁlm revolved around.

As an aside, we were two rows up from Wallace Shawn. If you don’t know him by name you have definitely seen him in Woody Allen movies, “My Dinner with Andre”, or his most iconic role, as Vizzini, in “the Princess Bride”. I spoke to him while waiting for the theater to open and he was quite nice and gracious. You can see him here through the hole I blasted in Kosta’s head, sorry Kosta:

And another one

2010-02-04T02:14:00.001-05:00

I started up yet another blog, this one for my Spring Sequential Art class. It should be good since we started it at the beginning of the semester instead of the end. Hopefully, there will be a lot of good posts for several months to come. The name of the blog is So Sequential. Go check it out: sosequential.blogspot.com. There is already some good stuff.

This is a round robin that our guest of honor, Jane Mai, started.
She was visiting.
Perhaps a bit lost?

What is given

2010-02-01T04:46:00.003-05:00

Thorsten and NikNic love to exercise their physiques and their psyches. And amazing natural landscapes are conducive to both.
So, just try and stop them.

Sequential Survey

2010-01-27T21:18:00.003-05:00

I forgot to post these in December.

Here are some images of work from my Sequential Art class. Every semester Pratt has a “survey” in which students display their work for the faculty. We get to walk around and make fun of and disparage their work all as one big group. No, actually it gives us an opportunity to get a sense of what is going on in all the other classes and across the student body. But there is so much work shown on these days it can be quite overwhelming and difﬁcult to really gauge the quality of the work other than on a superﬁcial formal level. That said, as one in a number of ways to evaluate the work of the students it can be useful.

Here are a few pics of some of my students’ work from Fall ‘09. This is not representative of all my students, or all their work. These are just the best pictures I have (best being relative to the rest of the pictures, not an abstract best).

Also some of the work shown is not from my class.

Jane Mai

Luke Rotzler

April Yim

Lizzi Gage

Paul Vanderberg

Revenge

2010-01-21T20:24:00.002-05:00

Power must discharge.

Better get out of the way when it does.

Sequential Robin

2010-01-13T21:31:00.005-05:00

My Sequential Art class and I did a series of round robin type comics exercises in class last semester. The ever studious and industrious David Chapman whipped up this blog so that we could all post our results. Go check it out: sequentialrobin.blogspot.com. There is some funny stuff already, but, once the rest of the class get their pieces posted, it will be even funnier.

If you are not familiar with the way a round robin works for comics, it’s like this: one person draws a panel, passes it to the next person, who draws a panel, and so on. We did ours timed. 7-10 minutes per panel, depending on our mood that day.

The one below was done by me, David Chapman, Luke Rotzler, and Chaz Sumlin.

The Temple in Old Town

2009-12-31T04:44:00.003-05:00

If, as you were exiting this life,
you were asked to write down your wisdom for the ages,
what would your book contain?

And in which temple would you dedicate it?

Pete’s Basement

2009-12-21T02:15:00.003-05:00

Pete’s Basement is a show about comics broadcast on the internet from Pete’s basement in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. They have been producing the show for two years now and have some pretty funny stuff on it, if you like comics and born-and-bred Brooklynites anyway. While I was drowsily manning my table at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival the other week they interviewed me about my work. Go here to check it out. My part of the show is around 9 minutes in. After me they go to some reviews of recent comics and then towards the end they go back to the festival footage. Check it out!

www.petesbasement.com

Aspirations

2009-12-15T03:42:00.003-05:00

I recently completed my applications to ﬁlm school.
Aspirations of becoming a director.
In addition to the rest.
No intentions of ceasing.

These are pics of the DVDs I submitted with my applications.

Follow along

2009-12-02T17:23:00.002-05:00

Hey, I am just apparently learning about this newfangled thing called the internets or webbernet or innersphinctum or some such gobbledy gook. Anyway, I have a special kind of thing called a “blog” on this hip young communication tool. If you check it out every now and then, or even better if you forget to check it out, you should look over to the lower right where it now says followers. Then you should move what Al Gore and I call the “cursor” over to where it says FOLLOW, and then just click it. That way you can say you follow along with Thursday City News and we can pretend to be friends. Unless we really are friends, in that case nothing will change, except you will feel an even stronger connection to my ever shining love.

Smoke Signal 3

2009-12-02T15:48:00.005-05:00

As you must know by now the very ﬁrst Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival is coming up on Saturday 05Dec09.
The festival is free and goes from 11am-7pm. Located at:

Our Lady of Consolation Church
184 Metropolitan Ave
Williamsburg, Brooklyn

The newest issue of the delightful Smoke Signal will be available at the festival. Come on out and get your free copy.

Below is the piece I submitted.

Click on these for readable text:

Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival

2009-11-25T03:53:00.005-05:00

Our friends at Desert Island have collaborated with Picture Box to put together what is sure to be a great event: the first annual (maybe?) Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival!!! It takes place from 11am-7pm on December 5th. If you live in the tri-state area and care anything about comics or graphics you must attend. I will have a table there and it is free to the public. There will also be a lot of great guests and concessions.

Get more info here: www.comicsandgraphicsfest.com

And below is the Mars Vulcan with the poster/program as a blanket:

Gushing energy

2009-11-12T19:36:00.002-05:00

I have been traveling like a sea turtle lately and haven’t had an opportunity for a new post.

This is a sketchbook doodle I did a few weeks ago while in conversation with a friend. Little bits of our conversation became texts in the doodle.

Enjoy.

Moving mountains

2009-10-29T06:01:00.005-04:00

A hat has been pulled out of the rabbit.
It will be exhausting, but worth it.

The movie Elliott and I have been working on
for over three years now
is in its last throes of gestational activity.

The ﬁrst screening will be tomorrow.
I thought I would not be able to go,
but Elliott and I pulled the hat out of the rabbit
at the last minute.

I start my journey at 8am this morning.
I get back to Brooklyn at 11am tomorrow morning.
A hell of a whirlwind tour, but worth it.

Elliott and I both woke up yesterday sweating
over the fact that this would be the ﬁrst
major shared event in our lives
one of us would be absent for.

Well, the fates were determined to dictate otherwise.
Here we go.

Aristotle said:
“Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.”
That is almost too profound to fathom.

Up and Down

2009-10-20T03:50:00.002-04:00

For every idyllic pony ride through Elysian ﬁelds
there must be a correlative sublime monster laying in wait.
It’s just natural.

“The way up and the way down are one and the same.”—Heraclitus

Uncle Envelope

2009-10-16T03:39:00.002-04:00

I am working on a contribution to Uncle Envelope scheduled for early next year, but you should subscribe now! USA Today’s pop culture blog Popcandy just wrote up Uncle Envelope, so check it out, click here.

Beaver Vortex, or General Mechanics 101

2009-10-15T02:01:00.000-04:00

Imagine the world from the perspective of a machine.
From a machine’s perspective
organism is alien,
nature is abhorrent,
existence is incomprehensible,
divinity is a ﬁction,
interpenetration is impossible,
inﬁnity is a number,
value is an equation,
principle is a hypothetical,
humanity is a tool.

Hmm… come to think of it…
I suppose we see from the mechanical perspective as our default,
our a priori as it were.
Perhaps we should try seeing the world from the perspective of a human?

It’s a topsy turvy world.

City of Thursday City

2009-10-12T05:53:00.004-04:00

It’s here!

After quite a long time and a lot of work the City of Thursday City website has ﬁnally arrived.

Here is the url: www.thursdaycity.com

That will take you here:

This is the portal for all the Thursday City sites. Click on website to enter the main stage. There is a lot of content so make sure to scroll around a bit.

Here are some other screen grabs:

Panta rei

2009-10-03T03:12:00.006-04:00

What begins as a triﬂe becomes an imperative. Impossible to ignore.
What begins as a pain becomes a pleasure. Impossible to resist.
What begins as a wonder becomes a bore. Impossible to recover.
What begins as a birth becomes a death. Impossible to remember.

But what has no beginning is becoming, becoming is its own end.

To be or not to be is not the question.
To be anything at all is already wonderful enough, if it weren’t so familiar.
To be consumed with not to be is nihilism.
But not to be is much more comprehensible than to be.

To be only seems obvious because we are oblivious.

Giovanni, cousin to Rocco

2009-10-02T02:45:00.003-04:00

Rocco is friendly and generous. Rocco’s cousin, Giovanni, burns holes into continents. But don’t allow that to dissuade you from appreciating him! Divinities can’t be held to the same rules as merely mortal creatures like man. We assume too much when we daily take our human domain for the entire universe of laws and values. Just because Giovanni may destroy entire land masses and civilizations do not compare him to the American military or the Nazis. He should be thought of in a similar way as the sun, we must simply and humbly pray for benevolence towards us.

Please don’t turn your deadly gaze upon us Giovanni.

Arson?

2009-09-16T01:32:00.004-04:00

I was watching the Bulldogs on my DVR at 5am Sunday when a horn started honking incessantly. This is Red Hook so I ignored it for a minute or two. Then I heard a boom or maybe a pow. I looked out the window and saw smoke billowing up from across the street. I ran down stairs and called 911 as I saw this truck blazing. While on the phone I realized I should go back for my camera. I ran back upstairs and then ﬁlmed this, go to Vimeo or Youtube for the video. Larger on Vimeo. Optimized for iPhone users on Youtube.

I will of course be using this in some form for an authorial video, so for now watch it as documentary and later pretend you never saw it.

the High Priest

2009-09-15T12:31:00.004-04:00

Our High Priest.
Mediator between the high and the low,
between divinity and physis.
He leaps and dances amongst the celestial spheres.
Has he forgotten us?

Why is he here?
He inspires us.

He travels to the stars,
so that we don’t have to.
What does he see there?
What does his silence mean?
He has to protect us.
He sees things we cannot fathom.
His laughter inspires fear in us.

Why?
He is here to help.

The High Priest.
Bridge between heaven and earth,
between spirit and soul.
He laughs and plays amongst the heavenly bodies.
Have we been forsaken?

Bento Box

2009-09-02T00:43:00.004-04:00

I recently constructed this “Bento Box” of goodness for some friends of mine. I liked it so much I took some photos. It is comprised of two t-shirts, one poster, two postcards, two sets of four buttons, and one copy of “the Moth or the Flame”. I fabricated the whole thing out of cardboard, white electrical tape, and clear packing tape.

Check it out:

Gay Paris

2009-08-31T16:02:00.003-04:00

Last year I posted here about a crazy trip to Paris for the ﬁlm I am working on with Elliott. Well, I was in Detroit last week working with Elliott on a short ﬁlm of my own and found this caricature we had done while we were in Paris. We were outside the Centre Pompidou ﬁlming a wild chase scene and I posed, as Les Grifﬁn, for a caricaturist. My neck was in pain after posing still for ten minutes, but it was worth it.

Smoke Signal 2

2009-08-19T00:36:00.007-04:00

Smoke Signal 2 is coming out soon. This is my contribution to the badass second issue.

I include the cropped images so that you can actually read the text if you are so inclined. But I try to keep the ﬁles relatively small so as to avoid a long lag time during loading. So you may still need to lean in close to read it. That’s okay though, computers need love too and this will give you an opportunity to get more cozy with yours.

Also this is the ﬁrst appearance of the other Sunrays Brothers. Nikolas Nicodemus and Thorsten Sunrays. They are cousins to old Thursday City townies Jehosephat and Cucumber, obviously on their father’s side. You will be seeing a lot of them in the future as they are gearing up for a long odyssey of the body and spirit.

Correction

2009-08-18T15:40:00.004-04:00

I don‘t know if anyone actually read the post “Bug eyed”, but it is not true that the Yankees engineered a draft for more home runs. Apparently they just shortened certain parts of the outﬁeld and adjusted fence angles. Whatever they did it is deﬁnitely the case that ﬂy balls in other stadiums are home runs in Yankee Stadium. I just bought into the idea of the breezeway because it sounds like such a Yankee thing to do. I still deep down want to believe it.

Because it sounds like such a Yankee thing to do.

Pops, I know you’re a fan, but I just can’t like those dirty Yankees.

Rolling black outs

2009-08-18T00:20:00.005-04:00

Last week saw an as yet unexplained series of events cause rolling black outs amongst most of Thursday City. And constant blackout in particularly hard hit areas. Unfortunately we here at Thursday City News were one of the “hard hit areas,” and therefore have been unable to post updates. But we are happy to say power is back up. If the cause of the blackouts is discovered you will be the second to know.

Sing muse

2009-07-20T15:22:00.004-04:00

I am in the midst of reading the Iliad. These are some sketches I whipped out while reading.

We start with Athena stepping in to curb Achilles’ infamous rage at Agamemnon. And then Zeus makes a promise to Achilles’ mother, Thetis. And later Agamemnon wields his lordly scepter and addresses the Achaean hordes.

There is about to be blood shed!